Plaid criticise pay rise for under fire university boss

02/01/2013

A pay rise of almost £20,000 a year was given to the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales (UoW) after an overseas degree controversy erupted, Plaid Cymru can reveal.

Professor Marc Clement saw his basic salary rise from £121,082 in 201o-11 to £140,150 a year in 2011-12, a Freedom of Information request discovered. He was also paid a “discretionary honorium” of £10,000 in 2010-11.

Professor Clement later became President of UoW in October 2011 with a salary of £140,150 a year but in July this year it was confirmed he was taking up a new post at Swansea University. The post of President has since remained vacant.

The principal of a Malaysian-based college with links to the university resigned in November 2010 amid an investigation into his bogus qualifications. Then last October it announced it was stopping validating degrees from universities and academic institutions at home and abroad. It was said by politicians at the time that UoW had brought the nation into disrepute.

Since 1 October 2012 the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales has been held by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales: Trinity St David (Professor Medwin Hughes), following the announcement in October 2011 that the two universities would in due course merge under the Charter of the University of Wales: Trinity St David.

The figures were released by the university following a complaint made by Plaid Cymru to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Lindsay Whittle, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales East, said: “The public will be baffled that the former Vice-Chancellor should have received a rise in his basic salary given the controversy which surrounded the university during his tenure.

“It is also difficult to understand how Professor Clement then came to be appointed as President on another six figure salary.”